Afrikakorps Self Portrait

Here is a different view of the German Army that fought in North Africa in World War II, in a collection of unique and hitherto unpublished photographs taken in most part with the ordinary cameras of the average German soldier. This book gives its readers a glimpse that touches the very essence of the period itself, a window through time looking back to the places where so much once happened. Here is an honest view of the Afrikakorps, as seen by the ordinary German soldiers themselves. The images are representative of those taken by German troops in North Africa, snapped by such as these mostly young faces who fill the pages. The photographs show the common scenery of the desert war, with its battlefield debris and all the paraphernalia of modern warfare. The men, and women, who played their part in this war are seen in their daily military routines, eating, training, relaxing, in battle too, and their story is told here through their photographs. In keeping with how these Afrikakorps soldiers saw themselves, as belonging to and identifying with whichever unit or arm of service they served in, this book makes the same distinctions. The photographs are grouped mainly according to whether they are connected with artillery, or transport and supply, or infantry, or armour, and so on. Each section is headed by brief and informative background stories. Other sections of this book include soldiers' home life in Hitler's Germany, training and action with the German Army in Europe before being posted to Africa, rare shots taken for the Wehrmacht's own archives, and a selection of unpublished photographs from the personal collection kept by the Afrikakorps' top official photographer, Ernst Zwilling. Most of the material seen here came straight from the very battlefield scenes shown in the book, picked up by Allied soldiers and kept as souvenirs, or from the personal albums kept after the war by the veterans of the Afrikakorps and given to the author....